STATUS: Going to bed early. I’ve got to kick this cold.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? I”LL BE AROUND by Joan Osborne
Because writers are quite comfortable with online book sites such as Amazon, often times it doesn’t occur to them to include independent bookstores in the links they provide on their Buy My Book website page.
If you’ve got a book about to be published and a website to promote said book and you as the author, the first think your publicist is going to ask you to do is to link fair on your author website. Include Amazon, BN, Borders but don’t forget the Indies.
Not sure how? Click here.
Haven’t got an indie link? Might be time to update the old website.
Haven’t ever heard of Indiebound (formerly Booksense)? Can’t hurt to learn a little more.
This indie author loves the indie bookstores.
One of my favorites is Tattered Cover in Denver. The tastiest bookstore in existence and a defender of clients reading records.
(They tried to prosecute someone based on his reading list…didn’t fly in court didn’t fly with the bookstore either.)
Interesting subject. Cheers.
-C
We have a fabulous indie book store here in Solvang. They have a book club for locals where you get a $10 coupon for every $100 you spend and they’re always happy to do special orders. If, no, WHEN I get published it will be my first book signing location :^)
I LOVE the Tattered Cover! Another great one is Powell’s in Portland.
The strange thing is, when I do a search for indie bookstores on Indiebound, using my sister’s Portland, OR, postal code, Powell’s doesn’t show up. And Indiebound just points people to bookstores; it doesn’t say whether those bookstores have the title you want in stock.
I was just commenting to ask if Powell’s counted. Given its large online presence I wouldn’t be surprised if someone who was all about being “indie” would decide that smaller businesses needed the attention. Silly if you ask me, but I live less than a mile from the City of Books, so I’m biased.
I think that’s a great idea. I’ll add links to my website right away.
Thanks! I’ve heard of them but didn’t know much about them. Time for me to learn!
I think the reason some authors shy from including indie links (and even borders links) is that it dilutes your all important amazon ranking. Yeah, I wanna sell copies, but I want eveyone to be able to SEE how many copies I’m selling, is the mentatlity. Authors these days want their ‘video game points’ that come with an Amazon sale. Plus, if they buy indie, there’s no reader reviews on your Amazon page, and everyone knows that good or bad, more reader reviews on Amazon = more sales.
Indie bookstores are great if you write literary fiction, but most indies (including my local one) are downright hostile to SF, which is the genre I write.
This is great, but it also considers many used bookstores (including Half-Price Books) indie booksellers, and I’m guessing some authors might not be in favor of referring their readers there.